At a press conference at New York’s LaGuardia Airport Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that financial strain on critical aviation staff is beginning to ripple through the system—including recruitment—as controllers miss their first full paycheck Tuesday due to the ongoing government shutdown.

“I want the best and the brightest,” he said. “But if you pick a career where you may not be paid for a partial payment, one paycheck, the next paycheck you’re not paid, and maybe a third, that’ll make you rethink, do I want to go into this profession?”

He cautioned that the shutdown was already discouraging new trainees.

“This truly can drive people, and we’ve seen a few times that it has,” Duffy said. “It drives people out of a profession where we’re trying to build more number

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